Magic: The Gathering deck types
The game Magic: The Gathering requires each player to have their own deck in order to play. There are over ten thousand unique cards which can be used for this purpose; thus a considerable number of different decks can be constructed. However, decks can usually be loosely classified based on their play style and mode of victory.Aggro, Combo, and Control by Jeff Cunningham Deck archetypes Most classifications of decks begin from one of three major strategies: aggro, control, and combo. Ramp is another main strategy, however isn't as prominent as the other three. Aggro is most closely related with red and white, control with blue and black, ramp with green, and combo doesn't closely relate to any colours in particular, and generally by the combo pieces used in the deck. Aggro Aggro (short for "aggressive") decks attempt to reduce their opponents from 20 life to 0 life as quickly as possible, rather than emphasize a long-term game plan. Aggro decks focus on converting their cards into damage; they prefer to engage in a tempo-based race rather than a card advantage-based attrition war. Aggro generally relies upon creatures as a cumulative source of damage. While strategically simple, aggro decks can quickly overwhelm unprepared opponents and proceed to eke out the last bit of damage they need to end the game. Aggro decks also generally have access to disruptive elements, which can inhibit the opponent's attempts to respond.Playing Against Aggro by Jeff CunninghamArcane Teachings - Project Hollywood by Tom LapilleDeconstructing Constructed: Processing the Process by Josh Silvestrihttp://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/30 Your First Aggro Deck by Billy Moreno *Example cards: , , , ,We've Got the Beatdown by Mark Rosewater *Example decks: **White Weenie, which uses small, efficient creatures such as , , and Playing White Weenie In Vintage by Pedro Godinho **Affinity, which uses the affinity mechanic and large numbers of artifacts to quickly play spells such as and , while efficiently dealing damage using and .The Daffinitive Affinity Guide by Mark Young **Red/Green Beatz, uses low-cost, high power creatures such as and to kill the opponent quickly. It also utilizes mana denial such as and .Team ICBM GR BEATZ!!! NEW TECH FOR EMERGING META **Sligh, which utilizes its mana as efficiently as possible to kill the opponent quickly, using low-cost cards such as and .Famous Red Decks in Magic History by Alex Shvartsman **Suicide Black, which uses efficient but dangerous cards that cost life such as , , , and . Suicide Black epitomizes Black's philosophy—win at all costs—and treats even its life total as an expendable resource.Vintage on a Budget: Suicide Black 2K9 by Stephen Menendian Control Control decks avoid racing and attempt to slow the game down by executing an attrition plan. As the game progresses, control decks are able to take advantage of their slower, more powerful, cards.Playing Against Control by Jeff Cunningham The primary strength of control decks is their ability to devalue the opponent’s cards. They do this in four ways:Your First Control Deck by Ben Rubin # Erasing threats at a reduced cost. Given the opportunity, Control decks can gain card advantage by answering multiple threats with one spell ("clearing"/"wiping" the board), stopping expensive threats with cheaper spells, and drawing multiple cards or forcing the opponent to discard multiple cards ("grinding"/"milling") with one spell. # Not playing threats to be answered. By playing few proactive spells of their own, control decks gain virtual card advantage by reducing the usefulness of opposing removal cards. # Disrupting synergies. Even if control decks do not deal with every threat directly, they can leave out whichever ones stand poorly on their own; e.g., a creature enchantment which will never need attention if all enemy creatures are quickly removed. # Dragging the game out past opposing preparations. An opponent's faster, efficient cards will become less effective over time. *Example cards: , , , , *Example decks: **Tezzeret Control, which controls the game using counterspells such as , builds card advantage with cards such as , and ends the game using to find and activate it for infinite turns.The Anatomy of Vintage Tezzeret by Stephen Menendian **Mono Blue Control, which uses a heavy suite of counterspells alongside card-drawing such as , removal such as , and a win condition such as .Standardizing Standard: Mono Blue Control by HKKID This class of deck is nicknamed "Draw-Go," because most of its players' spells are instants designed to be played during his or her opponents' turns. **Blue-White Control, which is similar to Mono-Blue Control, but features more board-control cards such as , and .Chicago-Style U/W Control by Zvi Mowshowitz ** , supplemented by card-drawing like and a number of disruptive spells.Giant-Sized Regionals Primer: Psychatog by Mike Flores **Astral Slide, which uses large numbers of cards with cycling, including those with added benefits such as and , to power and .Astral Slide in the New Standard by Gabe Walls **Mono-Black Control, which uses removal spells such as and to control the board, and to kill the opponent with spells such as .The Power of the Dark Side by The Ferrett It can also use cards like underworld dreams to put the opponent on a timer. **The Deck, which uses card drawing such as and deck searching cards such as to find powerful cards that are highly effective against particular strategies (such as , , and ), alongside a Blue base of counterspells to control the game and obtain an insurmountable lead.You CAN Play Type I #17: The Control Player's Bible, Part I by Oscar Tan Combo Combo decks the interaction of two or more cards (a "combination") to create a powerful effect that either wins the game immediately or creates a situation that subsequently leads to a win. Combo decks include "ramp" decks, which quickly generate mana in order to resolve powerful threats. Combo decks value power, consistency, and speed: the combo should be strong enough to win, the deck should be reliable enough to produce the combo on a regular basis, and the deck should be able to use the combo fast enough to win before the opponent. Many decks have smaller, combo-like interactions between their cards, which is better described as synergy. * Example cards: , , , , , . * Example decks: **The Perfect Storm, which utilizes and artifact mana to draw cards and fuel a lethal , all the while disrupting the opponent with and .The Perfect Storm by Stephen Menendian **Painter Combo, which uses and chooses Blue to permit to destroy any permanent or counter any spell, while also allowing to put the opponent's entire library into their graveyard.Painters, Grindstones, and Blasts, Oh My! by JACO **Worldgorger Dragon Combo, which revolves around the infinite loop triggered when is animated from the graveyard using an enchantment such as . The loop generates mana and card drawing which is then used to end the game.The 2010 Guide to Vintage by Stephen Menendian **Belcher Combo, which uses free and efficient mana acceleration to play and activate , preferably on the first turn. Because the deck has two or fewer lands, one activation of will almost always kill the opponent. **Hulk-Flash, which is dedicated to casting and putting a into play and then into the graveyard, allowing the player to find a combination of creatures which will kill the opponent instantly. and are used to find the combo pieces, while and protect the combo.The Ultimate Vintage Primer by Stephen Menendian **Steel City Vault, which uses "Draw 7" spells such as to rapidly assemble the - combo for infinite turns. The deck also uses several cards such as and to efficiently deal with , the most effective answer to the Vault-Key combo.The Steel City Vault Deck Unleashed by Brian DeMars **Hexmage Depths, which uses to inexpensively remove the counters from and put a flying, indestructible 20/20 creature token into play as early as the first turn.Busting Cthulhu Out of Dark Depths by Doug Linn **Monogreen Ramp, which uses cards like , , and to accelerate into cards like , , , , or . Hybrid strategies Midrange Midrange can be considered an archetype in its own right, but is essentially a cross between ramp and aggro. A typical midrange deck has an early game plan of mana ramp and control, but begins to play threats once it reaches four to six mana. *Example cards: , *Example decks: **Jund Midrange, which used to get out and on turn 3, and overwhelm the opponent with them. **Naya Midrange, which is similar to Jund, but has access to and other cards in white. **Blue-White-Red Midrange (UWR), which has more control elements, using to draw into very large amounts of cards and to end up swarming the board with tokens. Aggro-Control Aggro-control is a hybrid archetype that contains both aggressive creatures and control elements. These decks attempt to deploy quick threats while protecting them with light permission and disruption long enough to win. These are frequently referred to as "tempo" strategies, as their control elements are often more temporary; for instance, they may return opposing creatures to their owners' hands rather than remove them entirely. *Example cards: , , , , *Example decks: **Blue-Green Madness, which uses cards like , and . **Naya Lightsaber, which uses powerful creatures like and removal like , many of which also provide card advantage.Naya Lightsaber **Threshold, which uses cards like , and .http://mtgtop8.com/archetype?a=23&meta=39 **Fish, which uses mana denial such as and , alongside disruption such as , , and , to keep the opponent off-balance long enough that creatures such as and win the game.The Guide To Vintage’s Landscape – Attacking The Red Zone by Mark Hornung **Bob/Gush, which draws enough cards using ("Bob") and to overwhelm the opponent with attacking creatures and disruption such as and .The Guide To Vintage’s Landscape – All Things that Gush by Mark Hornung **Delver, which uses the efficient threat alongside disruption such as and , various red direct damage spells ( , , ), card drawing and filtering ( , ), and other cheap, efficient creatures ( , ). Snapcaster Mage in particular allows keys spells to be reused from the graveyard, allowing for great flexibility.http://www.gatheringmagic.com/richardcastle-ur-delver-burn/ Control-Combo Control-Combo is a control deck with a combo finisher that it can spring quickly if need be. A notable subtype of Control-Combo is "prison," which institutes control through resource denial (usually via a combo). *Example cards: , , , , *Example decks: **Stax, a prison deck which uses to destroy opposing permanents, to replay permanents to feed the , and and to tie up an opponent's mana and prevent them from ever playing spells. **Stasis, which uses and cards such as or .Deconstructing Stasis by Brian David-Marshall **Scepter-Chant, which uses and . **Trix, which gains life using and then uses to leave the opponent with the often deadly drawback. **Oath, uses and to quickly put a large creature such as or into play. **Control Slaver, which accelerates powerful, high casting cost artifacts such as into play using , , or .How to Play Control Slaver Now by Brian DeMars **Drain Tendrils, which controls the game using , , and while drawing cards with the + engine to set up a lethal .Drain Tendrils: Staying Ahead of the Curve by Codi Vinci Aggro-Combo Aggro-combo decks employ aggressive creature strategies along with some combination of cards that can win in "combo" fashion with one big turn. For instance, Ravager Affinity decks that include Disciple of the Vault can win by attacking with creatures and also with a combo finish of sacrificing multiple artifacts to Arcbound Ravager and killing the opponent with Disciple triggers. *Example cards: , , *Example decks: **Fling Affinity, which uses or and along with . **Food Chain Goblins, which uses , and and .Chaining Goblins by Paul Sottosanti **Fires, which uses with and .Deconstructing Fires by Brian David-Marshall **Dredge, which uses and cards with the dredge mechanic (such as and ) to fill the player's own graveyard. This enables free creatures such as and , which can generate a large number of zombie tokens in conjunction with and .Crushing Vintage Without Power Nine: The Manaless Ichorid Primer by Stephen MenendianPicking Brains – The Past, Present, And Future Of Zombie Nation by Mark Hornung Aggro-Control-Combo Aggro-control-combo decks combine efficient, creature-based damage, heavy disruption elements, and an ability to unleash an extremely powerful synergy that can end the game in "combo" fashion. *Example cards: , , , *Example decks: **Gro-A-Tog, which generally wins by playing and protecting it with disruption such as and as it "grows," but can also win by playing and chaining together and to draw many cards and instantly make lethal.Gardening In Vintage: How To Gro-A-Tog And Clip A Lotus by Stephen Menendian and Paul Mastriano Recent design philosophy Traditionally, Aggro was seen as advantaged over Control, Control advantaged over Combo, and Combo advantaged over Aggro.Ah Yes. Very Standard. by Zac Hill Wizards of the Coast has sought to make high casting-cost spells more powerful than in the early days of Magic, and have also wanted to play up creature combat more - an aggressive deck should have to worry about blocking and opposing creatures even from Control and Combo decks. To that end, R&D member Zac Hill described an ideal metagame structured such that: * "Midrange" is advantaged over "Aggro" * "Aggro" is advantaged over "Control" and "Disruptive Aggro" * "Control" and "Disruptive Aggro" is advantaged over "Ramp" and "Combo" * "Ramp" and "Combo" is advantaged over "Midrange" Each of these 4 categories would ideally occupy around 25% of a given metagame. In Hill's definition, Aggro refers most specifically to the fastest creature decks built to punish slow starts, ponderous Control decks, and aggressive decks who've substituted out damage for disruption. Midrange decks in this definition are slower creature-based decks who trump the speed of fast aggro with better quality from their somewhat more expensive spells. (Both of these would likely be considered "Aggro" in the traditional definition.) "Ramp" and "Combo" are conceptually similar as noted above; while the combo deck might seek to set up a combination of 2 or 3 cards for a powerful, game-changing effect, the ramp deck instead focuses on building mana as fast as possible and then casting game-changing yet expensive spells, or taking advantage of certain interactions that require a large manabase. A midrange deck often doesn't have the sheer speed to stop ramp or combo from either casting a huge spell or "going off" with the combo. Control decks can counter or otherwise answer the single big threat ramp decks and control decks provide while winning the long game. Similarly, "disruptive aggro" (equivalent to Aggro-Control in the classic archetypes above) can also stop the single threat Combo and Ramp offer while focusing on winning faster. These rules can change however as blocks cycle and meta shifts. References Category:Magic: The Gathering game concepts